GRIOTS REPUBLIC - An Urban Black Travel Mag - March 2016

that have ever been erected. The
Bogside, a neighborhood outside
the city walls, was quite possibly
the most heated place in the entire
island of Éire during the Troubles
– a period of ethno-nationalist
conflict in the late 20th century
further escalated by a 50 hour riot
in 1969 that quickly spread to other
parts of Northern Ireland in what
became known as “The Battle of
the Bogside”. Rioting between
Bogside residents and Irish police
stretched on for three days until
the British Army intervened to
restore order.
In January 1972, British soldiers
shot 26 unarmed civilians, gathered
to protest the continuous mass
arrests and internment of those
with suspected ties to the Irish
Republican Army (IRA). Thirteen
were killed, many while fleeing
soldiers or assisting the wounded.
Known as Bloody Sunday or
Bogside Massacre, the event has
been immortalized in music and
film, but the murals tell their own
stories: individuals whose impact
stretch beyond flesh and bone to
tell a larger story of a people who
embody writer Edna O’Brien’s
outlook on the Irish, “When
anyone asks me about the Irish
character, I say look at the trees.
Maimed, stark and misshapen, but
ferociously tenacious.”
The artists themselves, brothers
Tom and William Kelly, and Kevin
Hasson, have created a collection
of a dozen murals depicting
individuals at the center of the Irish
civil rights movement, while telling
a much larger, much broader
story. Having larger-than-life
expressions allows for much more
profound feelings and reactions to
these spectacular monuments to a
fierce people. Of particular interest
to a global community is a series
of headshots of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Gandhi, Mother Teresa,
and Irish civil rights champion
John Hume, which serves as a
clear message about the high
esteem in which Hume is held for
his relentless work in promoting
peace among the people of Ireland